The Millionaires Bloggers Domain

Everybody in the blogging ministry must be very familiar with fiverr , you must have heard or read about Fiverr and how it has made life easy for many people. However, what you may not know is that Fiverr is still an unfamiliar place to many people because they don’t grasp the benefits it brings.

Sadly, Nigerians constitute one of those nationalities that are yet to take advantage of freelance as a whole. Other countries know about what they can they can gain from it and are joining freelance sites in droves. For instance, according to a survey conducted by Forbes, freelancers now make up over 35% of US workforce.READ ALSO:6 Reasons Your Website Is Not Generating Traffic And How To Fix Them
That percentage represents about 55 million Americans. Don’t these people know something that you don’t?

The interesting part of all of these is that the population of people who go freelance does not indicate lesser chances for you. The reason is that the sky is big enough for everyone. In as much as you have a skill that you can sell, you will always find buyers who are willing to pay you for it. And as Nigerians, we are naturally good at anything we give our attention. So, you can be confident that you can earn better than many people from other countries if you give it your best.

Now consider the following reasons why you should join Fiverr.

1. You learn on the job yet get paid for it

Anybody who is a freelancer on Fiverr will agree to this fact. You don’t have to wait till you are perfect before you start selling your skills. As a matter of fact, what will bring you towards perfection is frequent practice of your skill. But what can be better than the fact that you are learning the ropes of the job but you are getting paid for it by different buyers? That’s the beauty of working on Fiverr. Other freelance platforms are not so encouraging to beginners like Fiverr.

2. It’s a cheap way to earn

If you are a worker, you are probably aware that a sizable part of your income goes into expenses surrounding your work such as transportation, dressing, feeding etc. If you go into freelance, you don’t have to worry about spending to ensure you keep earning. Aside your data, freelance costs almost nothing to start or operate!

Any skill you have is an indication that it’s something you enjoy doing. Unlike scenarios where you get tasks that you don’t like; in freelance, you work based on your strengths. You pick a niche that you are comfortable in and then work as though you are having fun. You can as well punctuate work with making phone calls, checking your social media accounts, singing, or doing anything you like. Pure fun!

4. You don’t have to work from 8am-5pm

Who says you have to put in nine hours of work each day before you can make ends meet? Then that person hasn’t heard of Fiverr. As a freelancer on Fiverr, you have a flexible working schedule. Whether you work best at night or during the day is not a problem provided you meet deadlines. You can work from 8am-10am and have a long break only to resume work at 4pm-7pm. This is just an example all freelancers can relate to.

5. It’s a great way to earn full-time

So you are looking for a job and you’re yet to find any? Try Fiverr (after all, it costs nothing!). You can divert the data you use on the social media to an avenue you can earn from while you wait for one of your job applications “to click"...

Shopify is a leading platform that allows the user to easily and quickly create a personal online store devoid of all the technical headaches.

It also saves expenses, since you don’t have to hire someone to create an online store for you.With Shopify, you can create a fully functional, advanced, and beautiful online shop easily and quickly, without setbacks.

Shopify has been operational since 2006. Up to now, the platform has managed to launch over 100,000 stores.The Shopify affiliate program, pays some of the highest affiliates commissions today.

It also comes with various tools as well as options to give you the support you need.

Additionally, if you run a certain blog, you can register for a Shopify account using the title of the blog. This is much easier to remember than using personal names.

Once you have successfully completed signing up for the Shopify Affiliate Partner Program, you can use your link to promote the platform and start earning.

How It Works

Once you have created a Shopify affiliates account, you will be given a unique link to Shopify, which can be promoted across social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn among others.

The link can also be promoted across blogs and other online platforms. When a new client signs up to the platform using your special link, you earn commissions. As previously noted, Shopify has one of the highest affiliate commissions available today.

In pre-sale commissions, you can earn up to 200% of the fee paid by the customer, every time you refer clients to Shopify. The payment method used in Shopify is PayPal. On the other hand, the minimum payout is $25.

The thing is, first concentrate on establishing strong relationships with influencers, ambassadors and bloggers, and the money will eventually come.

Shopify Affiliate Program Review — How to Earn

You can earn in 3 distinct ways in the Shopify affiliate program. Their system is straight forward and pretty easy. You don’t have to be techno-savvy to earn in this program.

All you have to do is to promote the program using the provided resources. Every time you refer a customer and they create an eCommerce store, you earn a certain commissions.

With that said, here are ways you can use to earn money through this affiliates program.

Referrals: With referrals, you can earn up to 20 percent monthly revenue, for each customer that you refer.

Template or theme sales: With this, you have the ability to earn up to 70% revenue from every template that you sell in the theme store

Mobile App sales: This allows you to earn up to 80% commission for every app you sell from the app store.

With Shopify, anyone can be an affiliate.

If you are blogger and you want to get the best returns from your website traffic, the Shopify affiliate program is just perfect. You can monetize your blog by adding affiliate links or Shopify banners to your blog posts.

Additionally, you can create detailed reviews about the program, rank higher on search engines, drive more traffic to the platform as well as increase the amount of sign ups. All this translates to increased income on your side.

Apart from blogging, if you are a publisher, you can also earn from simply promoting Shopify. In order to make a sale, you can use various internet marketing methods like social media sites, emails, or any other method that works for you, to refer customers.

Whenever you refer a customer and he or she signs up, you will see your income increasing. The good news is that Shopify provides you with all the right tools and resources to help you succeed.

Some of the resources available at your disposal include:

Marketing Collaterals: These include things like banners, hand-outs, and templates

Monthly Affiliate Newsletter: Such are used by the company to highlight upcoming events, offers and promotions.

Shopify Affiliate Dashboard: This enables you to keep track of all your earnings, the number of clicks generated as well as the next payout for your money.

One of the best things about this program is that even when a business owner signs up for the 14-day trial, you immediately get paid once they upgrade when the trial period elapses.

Additionally, you will never encounter any restrictions when trying to promote Shopify on Facebook ads or Google AdWords.

What more would you ask for?

The Shopify dashboard is intuitive and easy to use.

You get all the details regarding your earnings, as well as the amount due, all at your fingertips. Just get your link, start promoting it, and start earning.

Why Join this Affiliate Program?

Shopify is all about growing together with the affiliate. Many affiliate programs currently available are based around the growth of the business entirely.

However, with Shopify, you will be building your online business as you earn referral commissions. Apart from that, you will be working with a trusted brand and a market leader in the world of eCommerce.

Since you will be promoting a known product, there are very high chances of making a sale. There are numerous new entrepreneurs and small businesses who are ready to set up online stores. That is exactly where you come in as an affiliate.

Your task is simply promoting the eCommerce solution, using the Shopify affiliate program. From there, you immediately start earning commissions. All you have to do is to actively promote the platform then start targeting your customers.

This way, you will outshine your competitors.

Bottom Line

Shopify affiliate program is definitely one of the best when it comes to affiliate marketing especially for those in the eCommerce field.

Your task is easy.

Just build some engaging and great content around your eCommerce, share the newsletters, put those banners up, and watch your traffic grow. Unlike other programs, you start earning immediately with the Shopify affiliate program.

DESCRIPTION

YOUR OPPORTUNITY

Being part of the largest social news magazine, the 200th most read site in the world, according to Alexa Rank, getting your news out to over 100 million active monthly users. Blasting News has just reached this size 44 months after its launch (growing faster than Facebook, which took 54 months to do the same).

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

Publish high quality news, having the chance to use a variety of formats (written articles, videos).

Share and promote the news through social networks to increase the number of the readers.

YOUR COMPENSATION

A variable compensation, up to $1000 per article.

The variable compensation may vary according to a number of factors, such as:

Readers reading the article (the more people read the content, the more money you can earn);

Passionate about innovative online media paradigms, social journalism and democracy in the information system.

Interest and skills in SEO and in social media marketing.

Native speaker in English.

OPERATING DETAILS

Job Location: Anywhere.

The Blaster is not required to check in at an office.

.Working hours: Flexible.

The Blaster can work on a flexible basis.

SELECTION PROCESS

The HR team will evaluate the resume and will follow up with the candidate.

COMPANY DESCRIPTION

Launched in mid-2013, Blasting News is now the fastest growing global news publisher: the 200th most visited website in the world (Alexa Ranking), counting on 102+ million monthly unique visitors.

Blasting News has offices in London (headquarters), New York, Sao Paulo, Milan, Rome and Singapore.

Blasting News has an ambitious goal: to make our world a better place, giving everyone the possibility of sharing ideas with a global audience and enjoying truly independent information. Blasting News is made by the people, made for the people.

100% Independent - Blasting News encourages a wide range of points of view. All blasters can freely choose the topic and the medium of their contents. Blasting News has adopted George Whitefield’s principle “We’ll just have to agree to disagree.”

100% Democratic - Blasting News does not have any central editorial office: we have developed a technology that promotes the most interesting, highest quality news, taking into account a huge number of factors.

100% Meritocratic - Blasters earn money thanks to a simple quality-based system: the more people that read the content, the more money the Blaster receives

Over the last few years, generating quality has been a major concern for bloggers and lots of online entrepreneurs. It’s quite hard but 100% possible to drive massive traffic to your website!You probably believe you’ve done everything you think is the best already, from website design to daily content post yet the result says negative.

Obviously something is wrong, this is no brainer!

The billion dollar question is — what are the brain behind the poor traffic generation of your website?Am quite sure most business owners especially start-ups have asked this question over and over again yet the answer seems to be lost in the wind.

Fortunately for you, Google has directed you to the right place.

In this piece, I‘ll tell you the ultimate possibilities WHY your website is not generating traffic and how to fix them.

Without much ado, here are the top 6 reasons why your website is not driving traffic and how you can fix them.

1st reason: Your SEO is weak:Are you aware that Google is the best open source for generating free traffic?Getting your website on the first page of Google Search engine is tough but not impossible.It take steady hard work and obedience to Google guidelines to rank high in Google search engine.In the words, you need a superb content to begin with.

However, there are other factors that can help you skyrocket your Google ranking suchas;- creating XML sitemap for you website- Keywords optimization- SEO plugin installation and so on

The absence of any of these factors might cause your website to be invisible on Google search by making your SEO appear weak.

Weak SEO will useless your effort to be found when people search for product related to your niche.The bitter truth is that people hardly go to the second page on Google when they are searching for something.

Personally, when I’m searching for something on Google, once I can’t find what am looking for on the first page, I will enter another keywords instead of going to the next page.You might even be surprised that most people doesn’t know that other pages aside the first one exist.

How to fix it:Install search console, Google Analytics and an XLM sitemap: these tools are essential in getting your website found by Google.

And then XML sitemaps makes it possible for Google bots to crawl through your site and of course read your website. You should also consider the installation and configuration of Yoast SEO.

Yoast SEO is known to be the best Wordpress SEO plugin. This plugin will also helpyou boost your site SEO and drive traffic to your website.This plugin is quite simple. Once you install it, use the configuration wizard to guide youwith the setup.

2nd reason: Your content is BoringAs far as blogging is concern, content remains the king in traffic generation.How do you feel when you crawl through a blog with quality blog posts?

Am sure leaving almost became impossible? Why – the post is fleshy with quality content.What then can you say about your own posts?

Can visitors get stuck as soon as they get into your site? Or do they jump in, hiss and left?As long as you continue to write resistible, uninteresting, and boring content, nobody is going to waste his/her time clicking on your blog post.

So to generate traffic and get people stuck in your website, you need to write useful and compelling content, if not, you’re no closer to getting traffic to your website.

How to fix it:First you need to know your onus. What problem are you trying to solve with your website through your content.

Every content must have a target, so what’s yours?

Writing a quality content means understanding your audience and writing to suit their needs.Find out what their problem is and then render a solution to that problem with a well–researched content ranging from keywords planning to the actual writing. You might consider using tools like Google keyword planner, SEMRush, etc to get exact keywords people are looking for.

Note: before writing a blog post, always place yourself in your audience’ shoes, by doing so, you’ll able to have a solution to their problems.

3rd reason: Your Headlines are Loose and resistible

What attracts you to click on a post?I usually get attracted once I set my eyes on catchy headlines-I don’t even waste time hitting the click button-why? It’s compelling and irresistible. No one would even bother clicking if your headline is not interesting.

Eyes definitely eat first the before tongue get to taste the food.

So if you’ve spent all your time and energy writing quality content and then drops a boring headline, 90 out 100 people won’t even want to know if the content is superb or not. So headline is as much important as quality content- both go in handy.

How to fix it:You should know what your audience are looking for so you need to know exact keyword or something very close.

Thank goodness, you finally get an awesome keyword.The next thing is to write something capable of arresting the attention of people looking for such keywords.

Examples of titles: Top 10 ways of getting your website rank no. 1 in Google 5 best ways to make money on the internet How to overtake your competitors and rank no.1 in SEO How you can promote your sales to 70% through your website in 2018Write something that is catchy. However, your titles should be related to your niche.

4th reason: You content lack promotionIt is one thing to write a quality content, and another to promote the content.Do you just hit the publish button and relax while your content sink and sink until it can’t be found anymore.As a startup business, you brand may not have been recognized by people-you need to get people to know about the services you offer.

Prospects only clicks links that are visible to them, and yours can only be found if promoted.Even large businesses also promote their contents.So your inability to generate enough traffic could be lack of promotion.

How to fix it:This absolutely has nothing to do with budget- in other words, even if you’re running a very tight budget you can as well promote your content and get people to know about your brand-HOW?Social media marketing- It is free unless you want to subscribe to paid promotion campaign.

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc) is one the best ways you can promote your business, content and website as well-this is no brainer.

With good social media management you can get thousands of traffic in a matter of days.All you need is create social media presence (I would recommend Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn)As long as you continue to promote your social media presence, you’ll definitely get visitors running through your website.

Note: You must be socially active to get the expected result.5th reason: Your website has terrible user experienceThe poor site traffic you complained about could be as result of the terrible and horrible user experience of your website.If your site is not user-friendly, I bet you won’t have enough traffic-in fact your site visitors will even decrease in number.

Nobody would want to have bad experience when he/she needed to surf for internet for something.One thing you must know is that man (male and female) by nature is impatient. So if your site is not user friendly then generating traffic going to be almost impossible because people will not visit your site irrespective of your superb content.

Bad user experience will discourage those that wants to read your post.It is good to have a site that’s user friendly.

How to fix it:When it comes to a user-friendly website, many things are involved.Poor wed design, poor loading speed and many more.

So you have to modify your website and make it user-friendly, let visitors have the flexibility of navigating through your site without obstructions.

Optimize your website to load faster at least three second load. Optimize the images and videos on your page so that your website won’t spend years loading. No one has time for such terrible experience.

6th reason: Your website is not mobile friendlyYou might be wondering why your site is still not having much clicks. Check if your website is mobile friendly.

With the billions of people surfing the internet through their mobile phone, chances are that you won’t get much traffic. The portability of mobiles phone allows people to surf the internet anywhere and anytime provided there’s internet provider. So if your site in not generating enough traffic, the problem could be from non- friendliness of yourwebsite.

How to fix it:Use some of these tool to check if your website is mobile friendly then optimize your site to be compatible with mobile phones.

Now over to you, what other top reason (s) do you think can cause poor traffic generation of a website?

Have you for once envisaged where an entrepreneur
comes up with the idea for his/her business? Basically, great sources of
business ideas abound. And it is always required to conduct
an Effective Business Research before embarking on any business quest.

Observation is one of the best way to identify
viable business sources. You must be
able to observe the environment in which you live. Think through what you see,
hear, smell, touch or feel, and you will see before your eye business
opportunities that cannot be seen by an untrained eye.

“Even if you
don’t have the perfect idea to begin with, you can likely
adapt.” –Victoria Ransom.

The benefit
of owning your own business can’t be over stressed. A good
business idea could be an invention, a new product or service or an original
idea or solution. Below are some of the sources of business ideas for
start-ups:

. 1. GAPS IN THE MARKET
THAT YOU CAN FILL:

The idea can be a need
not being satisfied by the market currently. If there is such a need, then a
market or business opportunity exists. Unless a business fills a gap it cannot
thrive.

Without doubts, there
are so many gaps waiting to be filled. Once you have identified a market gap,
it is left for you as an entrepreneur to formulate a plan of action to tap the
opportunity with a good idea or products.

2. INVENTION OF A
PPRODUCT OR SERVICE:

A new invention can
create a good business idea by using a method no one has ever applied before. I
believe this is where most young entrepreneurs should spend more time. Although
it is not easy to craft and design new products and services. With all the
stress and competition already existing, it can be extremely difficult to break
into the market and stand out completely. But, I believe starting is the key,
even if it’s small.

“There’s
nothing wrong with staying small. You can do big things with a small team.”
- Jason Fried.

3. JOINING A FRANCHISE BUISNESS:

Practically,
a franchise business is the partnership between a franchisor who license
trademarks and a tested system of doing business, and a franchisee who pays a
fee to the franchisor for adopting the business model. Training and often,
promotional materials are provided by the franchisor, this has lots of merits
and one of them being the limitation of risks. As it is an already operating
and proven system, it’sharder to fail
as opposed to when building a complete new business. A franchisee must follow
the business model and has little space for creativity or innovation. A Franchise
business can also be very expensive to start. So , be prudent when making a
decision.

4. BY NETWORK
MARKETING:

Some direct selling
companies operates a multi-level system of sale where a sale person can recruit
other sales people, then receive bonuses based on the performance of his/her
recruits. This way of selling is called “network marketing” [networking] or
“multi-level marketing” (MLM for short), and it account for about a quarter of
total direct scales. It works like this: you sell the product to friends and
contact. One or two of them might think he/she can sell it to his/her friend
and so agree to become a distributor. Recruiting them, you earn bonuses that
are dependent on these sales. If those new distributors recruits more people
you get a share of their sales bonuses as well.

Whatever your idea is,
you have to be sure that it fits your need as an individual, as well as a
method no one has ever implemented before.

Check this out... I've been running a lot of test on my website recently to see what I could do to increase leads and sales.

I've tried all kinds of things - from graphically designed banners to auto-play videos. But there's been one add-on that was the easiest to do and had the biggest boost in conversions - adding Proof's real time social proof notification!

I ran a split test to see how effective it would be. One page didn't have Proof on it, the other did. That was the only difference and guess what... The page with Proof got x% more leads than the one without it!

Every product I share with my audience I have to full-heartedly believe in. I wouldn't be telling you about Proof if I didn't 100% believe it would help you get more leads and make you more sales online. I talked with the guys at Proof and they are hooking you up with a Free 14-Day Trial.

I'm by no means "techy" and I was still able to install it myself pretty quickly, and if you have any trouble their customer success team is AMAZING.

Due to increased monitoring, tracking and an
ever-growing number of cyber threats, demand for VPN services has been growing
steadily over recent years. As the importance of data security and privacy for
both businesses and individuals is continuing to rise, more and more VPN
providers join the cyber security market. As a result, privacy-focused Internet
users can now choose from a wide range of available services, varying in
speeds, security protocols, pricing and supported platforms.

By sending users’ Internet traffic through an
encrypted tunnel, VPNs ensure your browsing activities remain private and safe
from snoopers and hackers. Another useful thing about having a VPN is its
ability to bypass geographic restrictions allowing you access any content
online.

Some VPN providers, such as NordVPN, take basic VPN
products to the next level by adding extra layers of functionality and
investing in additional security. Among its many features,
NordVPN customers can find an ever-growing network of servers, an automatic
kill switch in case of unexpected connection interruptions, a double encryption
option, and lightweight proxy extensions for Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.
The fact that NordVPN is based in Panama, which has no mandatory data retention
laws, definitely helps this provider to stand out from the crowd.

Pros: Lots of servers, optimized for different needs. 3200+ servers in more
than 60 worldwide locations. P2P allowed. Six simultaneous connections. Blocks
ads and various online threats. Easy-to-use apps for major operating systems.

Pricing and plans

A two-year subscription
to NordVPN costs $79, which is only $3.29 per month. This is arguably one of
the best deals on the market, given all the advanced security features and
service reliability. However, if you are not into long-lasting commitments, you
can choose monthly billing, which will cost you $11.95 per month. A reasonable
compromise between these two is a one-year subscription for $69 ($5.75 per
month).

All NordVPN plans include unlimited bandwidth
on up to six different devices, so you can secure your smartphone, tablet,
laptop and router, protecting all devices on your home network for as low as
$3.29 per month. What’s more - NordVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, so
you can try it and see if it is the type of service you are looking for.

NordVPN accepts major credit cards, PayPal,
anonymous Bitcoin payments, and offers other alternative payment methods
processed by their partner, Paymentwall. Once you go to NordVPN’s order page
and start following the steps to make a payment for the subscription, you will
see all the available payment methods listed down below the subscription plans.

Alternatively, you can purchase a subscription
directly through iTunes or Google Play.

Privacy & security

NordVPN is based in Panama, which means that
the company is not legally obliged to collect and save any of their customers’
data. NordVPN accepts payments via Bitcoin and keeps no logs at all, so they
would not be able to provide any details about you even if they were asked to.

On top of that, the service is packed with
top-end security features, such as DNS leak protection, malware blocking, an
automatic killswitch and double VPN, and provides 256-bit AES encryption,
allowing even the most security-conscious users to feel thoroughly protected.

NordVPN employs two encryption protocols. OpenVPN with 2048-bit SSL encryption is
the default option in NordVPN’s Windows and Android apps. The 3072-bit IKEv2/IPsec is the latest addition to
the NordVPN security protocol family, set as default for iOS and macOS. By far
it is the most secure protocol, that meets military-grade encryption standards,
provides stability and high-performance.

Performance

It’s true that using a VPN always affects your
connection speed at some level. The only question is: how much? To measure the
effect, we used the Ookla speed-testing tool while connected to a Wi-Fi
network.

First, we chose the server closest to us
geographically. The test showed a rather insignificant drop in the download and
upload speeds.

Then we tried connecting to a couple of random
European servers, getting rather mixed results, ranging from around 5 Mbps to
the record 50.14 Mbps on one of the Swiss servers, which was even higher than
the download speed we got with no VPN in use.

As we expected, in the US VPN test the
download speed was reduced to approximately 2 Mbps.

However, if you use the Internet for daily
browsing, reading the news or checking your email, you probably won’t feel the
difference. For those who use a VPN for video streaming or P2P, NordVPN offers
a selection of faster servers optimized for these particular activities. Adjusting
your encryption level or using a wired connection instead of Wi-Fi can also
help increase the VPN speed.

Servers & locations

NordVPN boasts a large server network, which
currently includes 2642 servers in 56 countries around the world.
Some of these locations include the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United
Kingdom, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, South
Africa, Singapore, and Australia. As far as we see, the company is constantly
adding new servers and locations, so the next time you open the app, you will
likely find even more options to choose from.

Depending on your needs and preferences, you
can choose ultrafast servers for; Double VPN or Onion Over VPN connections for
enhanced anonymity; Anti DDoS for staying safe from denial-of-service attacks.
Or pick any regular server to hide your IP address, encrypt your communications
and to watch your favorite shows online - all NordVPN servers are now optimized
for video streaming.

Customer support

NordVPN has a nice-looking and well-designed
website, providing all the information you need in one place: product features,
pricing plans, available servers, downloads section and, of course - customer
support. You can get in touch with NordVPN’s technical support team 24/7 via
live chat, email or fill the contact form available online. Their agents
respond pretty quick, so you can get your problem solved in no time.

However, if you prefer to find all the answers
by yourself, there is also a pretty comprehensive knowledge base, that you will
find by clicking Help at the top
right of the website.

Conclusion

To wrap up, we are truly impressed with the
reliability and efficiency of NordVPN’s services. User-friendly and
straightforward enough for beginners, offering a bunch of thought-out features
for security-focused users, it is arguably one of the best products on the VPN
market.

Getting a loan for a proposed business has always been a problem. One of the major reason for this is due to poor feasibility report from the entrepreneur. Preparing a good feasibility report is undoubtedly a significant steps you should take if you need your bank to finance your
proposed business.

The same is true if you are planning to expand your existing
business. Presenting a good feasibility report to your banker will make a good
impression and can facilitate your getting a loan.

Generally, if you need a loan from your bank to help finance
an existing or new business, it is most likely your bank will require the
following information:

1.A
clear statement of the amount of the loan required

2.A
clear statement of the purpose of the loan

3.The
period or term of the loan

4.Your
feasibility report (if is a new enterprise or expansion of an existing one),
plus an authentic financial report of the performance of your business, if is
an already existing one.

5.Your
management background and competence.

The bank is very much interested in
learning about your management background, because without competent management
background the business will run into trouble and the repayment of the loan
becomes difficult.

6.Your
repayment arrangement. The bank will be keenly interested in knowing how you
plan to repay the loan. Hence, they will to evaluate your cash flow forecast.
Remember the cash flow forecast or cash budget that we talked about in the
previous chapter.

7.Any
security you can pledge. Banks in general, and in Nigeria in particular, want
all sorts of security. You are advised to find out from your account officer
what kind of security will be required before filing your proposal.

Banks generally prefer a security that can be quickly turned
into cash. Examples of such securities are Government Bonds, share certificate
and insurance policies. Other kinds of securities that can be pledged to a bank
are equipment, real estate like building, and your other property of value.

The examples given above do not exhaust the list of securities
that can be offered to your bank to enable you obtain a loan for business.
Likewise, the list does not exhaust all options open to a borrower in obtaining
a loan.

You may still be able to obtain a loan even without security, if you
can get a guarantor acceptable to the bank. Members of your family, friends and
relations can also be of assistance in raising loans for you. You can also
raise finance through the popular esusu or through thrift and co-operative
societies.

It is not likely, however, that any financial institution
will be willing to provide more than two-thirds to the cost of your proposed
project. In other words, banks and other financiers watch the debt-equity ratio
in appropriate cases in deciding whether to approve a loan or deny it.

Why banks insist on high credit standards:

Banks usually require high credit standards in order to be
able to get back their money. They do not actually own the monies they lend to
borrowers. They give from the monies deposited with them by other customers,
meaning that they are entrusted with public money.

A bank or any other financial
institution acting in this capacity of trust must, therefore, jealousy guard
the money so entrusted do it, if it must maintain its reputation.

Banks in Nigeria are under the supervision of the central
bank of Nigeria. (CBN). Thus, a banker’s decision on a loan application will be
influenced by the following factors:

1. Government policy

2. Bank policy

3. Customer’s interest

4. Government policy:

The government regulates the activities of banks in this
country through the Banking Act of 1969 and the Banks and other financial
institutions Decree of 1991. Apart from regulating, the Government implements
the economic and industrial policies of the country. Besides, banks in Nigeria
must comply with the relevant provisions of the companies & Allied Matters
Decree, 1990 and operate within its framework. In the final analysis,
Government is the regulator of the economic and financial system of the
country.

Agriculture receives the highest priority, followed by the
manufacturing and construction industries. In giving loans, therefore, banks
have to reflect Government policy as contained in the Central Bank guidelines.

This is so because the CBN acts as Government agent in the implementation of
Government directives and regulation of the banks.

Bank policy:

Each bank has its guidelines on lending by which it guides
its lending department. Such guidelines must, of course, be consistent with the
central bank guidelines. Each bank evaluates the loan application, taking into
consideration the standing of the customer and his past performance, the
purpose and amount of the loan, the period and the source of repayment.

The purpose of the loan must be acceptable and the amount
sought must be reasonable. No bank will be willing to finance the whole cost of
a project. The borrower must have a stake in the business by also risking his
own money in the project. The period by which the money will be repaid must be
quite reasonable and the source of repayment must be certain. This is where
your feasibility report and the past financial performance of your business
become particularly useful. A business should repay its debts out of it
profits.

Customer’s interest:

Sometimes a customer may be denied a loan or an advance in
his own interest. It is common for a customer to be overly optimistic about the
profitability of his project by under-estimating the possible difficulties he
might encounter. As a result of these considerations, the banker tries to make
sure the loan request is viable and not one that will land the customer in
disaster and make repayment difficult or impossible.

Bearing all the preceding considerations in mind the bank
subjects your feasibility report to the following appraisals:

1.Market
Analysis or Appraisal

Here he wants to make sure that proper market research was
done and that there is a market for your product or service.

2.Technical
Appraisal

Here the banker wants to be sure that the production technology
or process is feasible and that adequate technical arrangements have been made
to ensure a successful implementation of the project.

3.Managerial
Appraisal

Here the bank tries to satisfy himself that the management
team is competent.

4.Commercial
Appraisal

In evaluating the commercial arrangement in your proposal,
the bank evaluates your marketing plan to be sure that you have made proper
arrangement for the marketing of the product or service, and that adequate
arrangement has been made for a steady supply of raw materials relevant.

5.Financial
Appraisal

Under this heading the bank evaluates your financial
projections or forecasts, not only to ascertain their accuracy but also to
determine the profitability of the project. He also wants to determine whether
adequate arrangements have been made for financial the project and that there
is a proper balance between debt (borrowed capital ) and equity (owner’s
capital).

6.Economic
Appraisal

The bank would also like to determine what contribution your
project will be making to the economy in terms of saving foreign exchange and
employment generation.

7.Legal
Appraisal

The legal department of the bank would like to make sure
that your business is in accordance with the Nigerian law, particularly if it
is a joint venture.

You can see from the above the importance of your doing a
good feasibility study before submitting your loan application to your banker.